Mission Studies (Sessions 1

1
Mission Studies (Sessions 12)

• What new space-based measurement capabilities
  should Terrestrial Ecology, Biodiversity, and
  Applied Sciences be pursuing and advocating? Are
  the ones on the legacy roadmap still valid?
• How do we set priorities for ourselves what
  should we tell the Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems
  Management and Operations Working Group (CCE
  MOWG), how should we plan to respond to the NRCs
  Decadal Survey?
• What types of mission studies (to assess
  alternative technological /scientific approaches
  to a measurement, to assess readiness and risk,
  and to estimate mission cost and complexity) and
  other types of preparation are needed?
• How do we engage the involvement and support of
  the much larger ecological, biogeochemistry,
  biodiversity, and applications communities?

Note Group focused on exploratory missions not
missions for long term measurements
2

• Vegetation 3-D Structure, Biomass, and
  Disturbance. Vegetation height profiles over the
  Earths land surface are needed to estimate
  biomass and carbon stocks and to quantify biomass
  recovery following disturbance.
• Ecosystem structure and biomass focus on woody
  biomass, vertical and horizontal habitat
  heterogeneity, land use effects on carbon stocks
• Physiology and Functional Types. Global
  observations of plant functional types and
  physiological function are required. Spectral
  coverage and sampling, spatial resolution, and
  temporal sampling must be optimized for
  terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and to match
  their physical-ecological scales of variability.
• Ecosystem function focus on productivity,
  nutrient and water status, invasive species,
  coral reefs
• Global Ocean Carbon Ecosystems and Coastal
  Processes. New space-based global observations
  are needed over an expanded spectral range and
  with finer resolution to allow for the accurate
  separation of in-water constituents (e.g.,
  colored dissolved organic material, particle
  abundance, functional groups) and support the
  evolution of advanced ocean color algorithms.
• Coastal mission focus on the role of coastal
  systems in the carbon cycle, harmful algal
  blooms, transport of organic material, fisheries,
  pollution episodes
• Profiles of Atmospheric CO2. Measure high
  resolution columns and profiles of CO2 and other
  biogeochemically produced greenhouses gases in
  order to locate and quantify surface sources and
  sinks. This missions measurements of carbon
  sources and sinks will be used to develop and
  explain annual global carbon budgets, evaluate
  international reporting of greenhouse gas
  emissions and carbon sequestration, and as inputs
  to decision support for carbon accounting and
  management.
• Carbon budget focus on CO2 concentration
  profiles for land and ocean to constrain carbon
  budget

NRC Recommendation in Red (Apr 06) Roadmap in
black
3

• What new space-based measurement capabilities
  should Terrestrial Ecology, Biodiversity, and
  Applied Sciences be pursuing and advocating? Are
  the ones on the legacy roadmap still valid?
• Space based measurement capabilities proposed in
  Roadmap and by NRC Decadal Study are acceptable,
  list does not need to be expanded
• Missions on legacy roadmap are still valid. All
  NRC missions are included in legacy Roadmap.
  Roadmap needs to be updated since includes
  several missions in addition to those listed in
  NRC interim report
• CO2 profile mission would be better championed by
  another focus area (several comments posted on
  website)
• How do we set priorities for ourselves what
  should we tell the Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems
  Management and Operations Working Group (CCE
  MOWG), how should we plan to respond to the NRCs
  Decadal Survey?
• Need a clear set of science questions and clear
  set of measurement requirements. Suggest HQ take
  measurement requirements from NRC mission reports
  as a first cut and then offer to community for
  comment - START TODAY. This should be complete
  before end of calendar year
• Once have measurement requirement provide
  opportunity for fast turnaround mission concept
  studies based on measurement requirement. Studies
  should be completed in lt1 yr, must have clear
  requirements and end with a mission cost
• Should clearly articulate societal relevance,
  include applications
• Once have cost can look at priority and any
  opportunities for joint missions

4
Community Response by end 06
Proposal Opportunities
Science question
Earliest flight 08
Measure objective Vegetation 3DDisturbanceBioma
ssPhysiologyFunctional types
Measurement requirement AccuracyPrecisionSpatia
l res.Temporal res.CoverageObjectiveThreshold

Technology/ Mission req.
Mission studies 07 ESSP proposals 08
5

• What types of mission studies (to assess
  alternative technological /scientific approaches
  to a measurement, to assess readiness and risk,
  and to estimate mission cost and complexity) and
  other types of preparation are needed?
• Need clearly defined set of science and
  measurement requirements before do mission
  studies (science requirement matrix)
• Mission studies should be short lt 1yr. Earliest
  mission AO in 08
• Studies should evaluate complementary
  opportunities with other focus areas
• Mission studies must include a cost estimate
  (multiple cost models)
• May need workshops to look at technology
  opportunities to reduce risk
• Mission concept studies should be made available
  for comment

6

• How do we engage the involvement and support of
  the much larger ecological, biogeochemistry,
  biodiversity, and applications communities?
• Measurement teams must include instrument and
  mission science teams, and engage broader
  community
• Provide sample datasets to involve extended
  communities. Sample datasets should orientated to
  consumer and allow rapid prototyping for
  applications.
• Applications program needs to identify
  measurement requirements (missing feedback loop)
• Better documentation, especially NPOESS, greater
  transparency into algorithms, more on uncertainty
  
• Provide opportunities for campaigns to validate
  measurement capabilities
• Coordinate joint AO amongst NASA,NOAA,NSF,USGS,USF
  S,DOE,EPA from field to airborne to space
• NASA should answer emerging science priorities of
  broader community (see article in Science)
• Improve standard products, make more accessible
• Offer short courses on- and tools for-
  manipulating remotely sensed data
• International bridging missions will never be
  taken seriously if cannot access International
  data. Need to better engage international
  community. Should offer joint NASA/ESA call where
  ESANASA guarantee data access.

7
Attendees

• Terry Arvidson
• Assaf Anyamba
• Bryan Blair
• Peya Campbell
• Mark Chopping
• Anthony Freeman
• Robert Green
• Jonathon Greenberg
• Eric Hockberg
• Simon Hook (co-chair)
• Marc Imhoff (co-chair)
• Jim Irons
• Michael Keller

• Joseph Kellndorfer
• Bob Knox
• Frank Muller
• Moffatt K. Ngugi
• Andrea Razzaghi
• Haris Riris
• Paul Siqueira
• Todd Steissberg
• Dave Tralli
• Woody Turner
• Susan Ustin
• Steve Ungar
• Robert Wolfe